The New York Mets fell in 11 innings to the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday. It was a 2-1 loss, with the only offense coming from a Juan Soto solo home run. While the home run broke some of the recent offensive ineptitude of the Mets, that would not be the story of the game.
Francisco Lindor was the story of the game after committing a mental error in the first inning and a baserunning error later in the game. After the contest, Lindor took the blame for his mental lapse, per Mike Puma of The New York Post.
“I forgot the outs,” Lindor said. “I made a mistake that probably cost Peralta to go an extra inning and more pitches after that. Inexcusable.”
It has not been Francisco Lindor’s day so far. He forgot how many outs there were and got caught wondering off first base 😬 pic.twitter.com/13RDHJy0Um
— js9innings (@js9inningsmedia) April 1, 2026
In the bottom of the first inning with one out, Ivan Herrera hit a single, getting a man on base. The next batter, Alec Burleson, grounded the ball to Lindor, who ran and tagged second base. Still, that was the second out of the inning. Instead of throwing the ball to first for an inning-ending double play, he started trotting towards the dugout before realizing his mistake. Freddy Peralta would strike out the next batter, but had to throw five extra pitches to get there.
In the sixth inning, Lindor reached base on an error, bringing Juan Soto to the plate with just one out. He got caught flat-footed and was picked off. Adding insult to the event, Soto hit a home run in his at-bat, which would have been a two-run shot had Lindor not been picked off. The game would go to extra innings tied at one, meaning Lindor's mental error cost them the victory.
Mets' manager Carlos Mendoza defended getting picked off, but not the first-inning issue for Lindor.
“They got us there,” Mendoza said. “He was going to go. We thought we had a tip there and they got us with a quick step-off move there. I wouldn’t consider that one as a mental mistake because he was trying to get some momentum there and being aggressive. But the first one [forgetting the outs] is the one that can’t happen.”
The Mets are now 3-3 on the season, and begin a weekend series with the San Francisco Giants on Thursday night.
